Sorry the weather wasn't better, but it looks like a fantastic hike nevertheless. Seems so wonderful to be adequately prepared to enjoy such unique opportunities! Again, thanks for the specific details along with the great images.

__________________
Let's ride!!! - No offense, but there've been a lot of people over time who were just as sure, yet got it wrong. - Una necedad, aunque la repitan millones de bocas, no deja de ser una necedad. - "you know that I could have me a million more friends and all I'd have to lose is my point of view" (Prine)

In real life I ship cargo from Punta Arenes to Santiago, and that can take four hours by plane. And she is riding a single wheeler??? She could walk faster than ride.

Ulyses, you have seen some incredible things on this journey, but I don't know how you are going to top this one. You had better just give up now, and come home.

Here is a link to a blog by a young woman who has crossed the US coast to coast and also ridden the CDT from north to south on a unicycle. Pretty amazing the spirit of some people.http://divideby1.blogspot.com/

Bryce, you are certainly keeping me entertained with your exploits. Great pictures and travelog; I look forward each day to read your posts. I should also wish you a happy birthday so, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, a couple of days late.

I woke up on the morning of the 12th shivering uncontrollably. The lack of cloud cover had caused the temperature to plummet and the vapor from my breath had frozen to the underside of my tent fly in a fragile lattice of ice. I was seriously regretting bringing my worst and oldest sleeping bag; after warming up a bit and eating breakfast, I hunted down some cardboard to insulate my tent hobo style against the upcoming night.

Once again, Dylan and I joined our new found gang of North American friends and hit the trail. Today's hike would take us up to the base of Fitz Roy. The trail head was a short walk outside of El Chalten and began with a brisk climb.

The weather turned out to be crystal clear and after an hour of hiking, we reached a lake with a great view of the approaching peaks.

The trail continued on and the views of Fitz Roy and it's surrounding spires became progressively more stunning.

The hike was fairly mild for the most part and was made even easier by the fact that we were only carrying day packs. It was nice to have a group of Americans and Canadians to talk to as we hiked.

Just before the last portion of the hike, we came to a small shelter and found this bird just hanging out a few feet away from the trail:

Apparently so many people have fed this thing that it just stakes out next to the trail every day and waits for scraps. I threw a rock next to it to see if it would scare off, but it just took a couple of hops and then tried to see if the rock was food.

The last portion of the hike was a steep scree covered trail that left me breathless. Fortunately, the view at the top was worth it.

The views from Lago de Los Tres were totally breathtaking, despite the hoards of people that were at the mirador with us. We were even treated to a few small avalanches from the hanging glaciers above the southernmost lake.

After spending an hour or so eating lunch and taking pictures, we headed back down to El Chalten and cooked up some dinner. I ended up staying up till midnight and drinking a few beers to celebrate my birthday. At 29, I'm starting to feel old, almost like I should go and do something with my life!

In real life I ship cargo from Punta Arenes to Santiago, and that can take four hours by plane. And she is riding a single wheeler??? She could walk faster than ride.

Ulyses, you have seen some incredible things on this journey, but I don't know how you are going to top this one. You had better just give up now, and come home.

You're right, I just can't continue after being trumped by a uni!

Seriously though, you do frieght? I'm trying to figure out how to ship my bike home in the next couple of weeks, do you know of anybody in Buenos Aires or Vallpo that consolidates containers and ships to the west coast?

Seriously though, you do frieght? I'm trying to figure out how to ship my bike home in the next couple of weeks, do you know of anybody in Buenos Aires or Vallpo that consolidates containers and ships to the west coast?

Let me check. I will PM back to you.

__________________
The Good Lord gave most of us 10 digits; mine are all thumbs.

.... At 29, I'm starting to feel old, almost like I should go and do something with my life!

I understand you, Bryce. I was there once. And I have a son turning 29 in a couple of weeks. I know how confusing and apprehensive these thoughts can be. Please allow me to give back a little for sharing your experiences here. I hope this analogy helps you gather your thoughts over time.
People think it's formidibly difficult to embark upon and persevere through a journey such as yours herewithin documented. While it certainly has it's challenges, it's still miniscule compared to the rest of your life. Finding that turnoff, the right place to spend the night, and how to get your machine sorted can present quite a task at the moment, but hard to compare to finding a lifelong companion who will correctly mother your children, deciding where you're going to live, and how to support your family. But much like your journey, you plan ahead the best you can, you keep your eyes on where you're going while peeking back occasionally, work your way through through the terrain avoiding the obstacles you see and dealing with those you didn't, perform adequate maintenance, ride the good times with ecstacy and think of more ahead while down for maintenace. We do the best we can, but God has a master plan in which we play a role, so we look to Him for guidance. The road in front of us is all we can see, and our best attempts to navigate it skillfully aren't always as successful as we'd hoped. And while we can see and judge the trail in front of us, and can pick a path through the obstacles in sight, there's no telling what's around that corner or past that rise up ahead. We can only deal with the beyond after approaching with caution. We learn to make no assumptions, and to not take personally what we encounter. We learn from our experiences but harbor no regrets. We strive to always do our best and to say what we mean. Mostly we zip through with glee. However, some hills will be very steep and some water crossings very deep; we get stuck, crash, break things, and get hurt along the way. It's the grace with which we pick ourselves up and move on that shapes our character the most. As for choice of schooling/career, many factors play a role in this decision, some beyond our control, but ideally we look for something we're good at, enjoy doing, and can make an adequate living doing. At 29 or so, we're quite physically able and have some experiences behind us, from which we've learned, the lessons of which can used to orient ourselves in the direction of what we believe will be the happiest for us. So, in much the way you've approached this trip, so may you approach your procreative, livelihood, and recreational journey ahead. You have been bestowed the talents, and you will do just fine by God and be able to look back with no regrets if you stick to what you know is right. May you encounter excitement, happiness, contentment, and inner peace as you travel through life!

__________________
Let's ride!!! - No offense, but there've been a lot of people over time who were just as sure, yet got it wrong. - Una necedad, aunque la repitan millones de bocas, no deja de ser una necedad. - "you know that I could have me a million more friends and all I'd have to lose is my point of view" (Prine)

After another frosty night in El Chalten, we packed up our gear, said our goodbyes to our hiking friends, and set off for Gobenador Gregores, a small town in the middle of nowhere off of Ruta 40 where Dylan had been stranded for three days due to a gas shortage during his ride south. We crossed our fingers hoping that they would have gas this time as the next fuel stop was beyond our maximum range.

Leaving El Chalten, Fitz Roy loomed majestically in the background as a strong tailwind propelled us to the east and the turn off for Ruta 40.

After reaching Ruta 40 and the small pueblo of Tres Lagos, we stopped at the last gasolinera to top off our tanks. Immediately outside of the service station, the road devolved back into it's natural primal state: ripio!

This section between Tres Lagos and Gobendador Gregores had been rumored to be one of the worst stretches. However, it appeared that a grader had been along recently and we were able to fly! There were also several long stretches that had just been paved or were about to be paved. Dylan commented that the road had improved markedly since he had been here a few weeks ago.

Below you can see one of the freshly paved sections running parallel to the old road on the right:

The XR650L felt like it was back at home in the gravel and the dirt and I found myself flying along faster than I normally would ride on the pavement with Metallica cranked in my headphones. Dylan tooled along at a slightly more sedate pace for the most part; however, on the final stretch into town, he cranked it up and rode alongside of me.

Just outside of town, Dylan stopped and emptied his reserve into his tank in the hope that there would be fuel.

And then we hauled ass down the remaining stretch of ripio. It was actually pretty nice and Dylan made a little movie with his GoPro:

We arrived in town and found a fairly long line for gas at the service station. We pulled in behind another motociclista riding a Harley with Italian plates.

I was extremely impressed! When I had first decided on doing this trip, I had thought about doing it on my Harley but had been talked out of it by several people. In retrospect, I'm kind of sad that I didn't. Seeing someone like this guy who has literally ridden his Harley around the world is very inspiring! I didn't catch his name and I'm sorry I didn't. He was on an older Fat Boy with the 80 CI EVO motor. So cool!

He's actually put so many miles on this bike that the odometer has rolled over!

So impressive! He said he gets a little cold while riding down here and that the ripio is a real bear, but other than that, he was having a good time.

Since it was my birthday, I convinced Dylan that we should spring for a hotel. After stashing our gear, I headed to a Parrilla and treated myself to some Asado. This was overseas birthday number two for me; last year's was in the Sandbox formerly know as Afghanistan. Argentina is a much better place to spend your birthday.

I understand you, Bryce. I was there once. And I have a son turning 29 in a couple of weeks. I know how confusing and apprehensive these thoughts can be. Please allow me to give back a little for sharing your experiences here. I hope this analogy helps you gather your thoughts over time.
People think it's formidibly difficult to embark upon and persevere through a journey such as yours herewithin documented. While it certainly has it's challenges, it's still miniscule compared to the rest of your life. Finding that turnoff, the right place to spend the night, and how to get your machine sorted can present quite a task at the moment, but hard to compare to finding a lifelong companion who will correctly mother your children, deciding where you're going to live, and how to support your family. But much like your journey, you plan ahead the best you can, you keep your eyes on where you're going while peeking back occasionally, work your way through through the terrain avoiding the obstacles you see and dealing with those you didn't, perform adequate maintenance, ride the good times with ecstacy and think of more ahead while down for maintenace. We do the best we can, but God has a master plan in which we play a role, so we look to Him for guidance. The road in front of us is all we can see, and our best attempts to navigate it skillfully aren't always as successful as we'd hoped. And while we can see and judge the trail in front of us, and can pick a path through the obstacles in sight, there's no telling what's around that corner or past that rise up ahead. We can only deal with the beyond after approaching with caution. We learn to make no assumptions, and to not take personally what we encounter. We learn from our experiences but harbor no regrets. We strive to always do our best and to say what we mean. Mostly we zip through with glee. However, some hills will be very steep and some water crossings very deep; we get stuck, crash, break things, and get hurt along the way. It's the grace with which we pick ourselves up and move on that shapes our character the most. As for choice of schooling/career, many factors play a role in this decision, some beyond our control, but ideally we look for something we're good at, enjoy doing, and can make an adequate living doing. At 29 or so, we're quite physically able and have some experiences behind us, from which we've learned, the lessons of which can used to orient ourselves in the direction of what we believe will be the happiest for us. So, in much the way you've approached this trip, so may you approach your procreative, livelihood, and recreational journey ahead. You have been bestowed the talents, and you will do just fine by God and be able to look back with no regrets if you stick to what you know is right. May you encounter excitement, happiness, contentment, and inner peace as you travel through life!